Postal workers and the rise of collective bargaining -- Rising expectations and brewing conflict -- The strike begins -- The strike ends -- Aftershocks and postal reorganization -- The U.S. Postal Service and the postal unions in the 1970s -- Almost striking again, arbitration, and automation, 1980s-1990s -- Downsizing, financial crisis, and the challenge for postal labor, 2000-2019.
Summary:
"For eight days in March 1970, over 200,000 postal workers staged an illegal 'wildcat' strike--the largest in United States history--for better wages and working conditions. Picket lines started in New York and spread across the country like wildfire. Strikers defied court injunctions, threats of termination, and their own union leaders. In the negotiated aftermath, the U.S. Post Office became the U.S. Postal Service, and postal workers received full collective bargaining rights and wage increases, all the while continuing to fight for greater democracy within their unions. Using archives, periodicals, and oral histories, Philip Rubio shows how this strike, born of frustration and rising expectations and emerging as part of a larger 1960s-1970s global rank-and-file labor upsurge, transformed the post office and postal unions"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.